Market Researchers know that the average American consumer currently has some twenty thousand individual possessions in their homes and say that this number is growing yearly. A good percentage of these possessions are not often used and are stored indefinitely.
Companies generally wish to maintain archived copies of past transactions. It is also a requirement in many jurisdictions that matters relating to a company's transactions be retained for a number of years, causing a large accumulation of files and papers, which must then be retrievably archived.
Additionally, an increasing number of people maintain an office at their home or are establishing small businesses. Consequently there is an expanding need for relatively inexpensive general storage and files storage boxes that are sturdy and stack easily to conserve floor space in storage areas of the home and office.
Low cost storage and or hanging file boxes that are flat packed and assembled by the consumer are commercially available. These available forms are die cut from sheet fibreboard with fold creases allowing them to be folded into a box structure having four side walls, a bottom formed by interlocking flaps projecting at right angles from the bottom of the side walls, and have an open top. The two opposite edges of the top may be so spaced as to act as rails for the support of standard hanging files. Generally a separate folded fibreboard lid is also provided with these common forms.
In a variant of this form, disclosed by U.S. Pat. No. 5,494,161, edges for support of hanging files within the box may be formed by a pair of opposite fibreboard flaps that extend vertically from the bottom of the box to a distance short of the top edge of the box.
A disadvantage of these types of storage boxes, is that their bottoms tend to fail and open when loaded. Also they do not stack well because they do not positively locate one on top of the other, and lack structural integrity to properly support the weight of superior boxes in a stack.
Additionally, any dampness on the floor of the storage area may result in damage to the contents and softening of the lower portion of the side walls of the bottom box leading to possible failure of the walls and collapse of the stack. Some manufacturers attempt to overcome the structural deficiencies of current forms by using heavier weight fibreboard and the inclusion of more flaps and or additional separate pieces of fibreboard to reinforce the sides and the bottom. However, such structural remedies are a poor use of a natural resource [wood fibre] and significantly increase the cost to the consumer for little net product improvement.
It is an object of the present invention to address or ameliorate some of the above disadvantages.
The term “comprising” (and grammatical variations thereof) is used in this specification in the inclusive sense of “having” or “including”, and not in the exclusive sense of “consisting only of”.